Domain Investing and Domaining Blog

Domaining Is Like Hidden Gold

As you all know eMachines were very popular at one point. It is a long standing brand and they even manufacture computers today. I was going through top 20 email from ValueDrops.com and saw the singular domain “eMachine.com” was listed and was being dropped today.

As you can imagine it caught my attention. I started doing a little research and “emachine” has around 10000 exact match monthly searches according too Google Keyword tool. And I bet it has a lot of type in traffic as well.

Isn’t this a UDRP case you ask? Well, I say it depends on what you do with the domain. eMachine is still a generic term and could be applied to a wide range of industries. But it could be an issue if eMachines has a trademark for eMachine which I haven’t checked.

However, why I don’t think this is a problem? If I had the domain, I wouldn’t use it for anything else but to sell eMachines on the domain or have direct affiliate links to other online retailers that sell eMachines. But it is important to not show any ads or any other computer brands. Even if there is a trademark on eMachine, as long as you use the domain to sell the trademarked product or service and nothing else, you should be fine.

This became clear when we saw Toyota lose in this case. But again, I’m not a lawyer, you should consult with your attorney with your specific case.

So shouldn’t eMachines own eMachine.com by now? I think so.

What was interesting is that it was listed in the top domains list in all 3 backordering services, SnapNames, Pool, NameJet. In fact, NameJet had 90+ bidders. But I think SnapNames got it. Yes, I did place a bid on it myself

Despite this… I’ve also bidded on this domain. Why you ask?! Well because in my opinion my intended use would not be similar enough in nature to lose this domain in a UDPR. I have other material that I would apply in my defence should they should to file a UDRP. With all that said, I have a concrete limit I’m prepared to bid up to and if goes beyond that limit then it’s someone else’s gamble!

I’m no longer surprised by the drops that come along courtesy of large companies. Mistakes are made by individuals and companies of all sizes, day after day.

It reinforces the benefit of registering important domains for the full ten year period allowed (particularly given it’s chump change for a large co.). Autorenew is also a must for important domains.

Often these mistakes occur because the contact email is no longer in use and the domain is set to manual renew, and/or the payment setup for autorenew is no longer valid (expired credit card for example).

I keep a close eye on my portfolio and to date I haven’t let anything drop that wasn’t intentional, here’s hoping it stays that way for the foreseeable future!

I was out of the bidding well before that point. I wasn’t going to pay that much for the domain. I’ll be interested to see if:
1 – the domain is developed
2 – eMachines file a UDRP (given their history I think they might!)